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Key witness finishes testimony in murder trial

Is Roland Ellis a &#34;chronic&#34; dope smoker who once had a &#34;love affair with guns,&#34; in the words of a defence lawyer, and is now lying to implicate his former childhood friends in a heinous drive by shooting?

By Betsy PowellCourts Bureau

Tues., May 12, 2009

Is Roland Ellis a "chronic" dope smoker who once had a "love affair with guns," in the words of a defence lawyer, and is now lying to implicate his former childhood friends in a heinous drive by shooting?

Or is the Crown's key witness in a first-degree murder trial a former gang member who has come clean about his criminal past and was in court not to "make up any stories" but to "tell the truth to the best of my abilities," as he told a Superior Court jury numerous times?

The lanky 26-year-old finished testifying today after five days on the witness stand, the last few under vigorous cross-examination by defence counsel who pointed out several examples of contradictory evidence.

Scarborough residents Tyshan Riley, 26, Philip Atkins, 25, and Jason Wisdom, 23, are charged with first-degree murder and attempt murder of two innocent men gunned down during evening rush hour on March 3, 2004 after they stopped for a red light at Finch Ave. E. and Neilsen Road.

The Crown alleges it was a case of mistaken identity and the defendants were members of a Galloway gang called the Throwbacks who were going into areas of Malvern and shooting people they thought were rivals.

Mirosolin had asked Ellis about previous testimony when he said he was with someone on the night of the shooting when that person was, in fact, in custody.

Ellis had repeatedly insisted the friend was one of three young men who accompanied him that night to visit Smokey, a woman whose apartment served as a hangout in the Galloway neighbourhood. Returning after a lunch break on Monday, Ellis said he had given it some more thought and decided the friend wasn't in the group that night.

Akhtar asked Ellis how often he would walk over to Smokey's during a week. "Four or five times," Ellis replied, adding that was over the course of two to three years, often with the friend who was locked up March 3, 2004.

Last week, Riley's lawyer, David Midanik, suggested part of the reason Ellis has turned on his client relates back to when the two were kicked out of Ellis's mother's house for drug dealing. Ellis testified afterward he felt abandoned by Riley, although he said that his anger lasted only a day.

Akhtar asked Ellis today to reiterate he was only mad "that day," and he agreed. Ellis also testified he and Riley continue to commit criminal acts after the incident.

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